Indian-American Doctor Trains Peers in Robotic Surgery With Da Vinci Surgical System

Robotics-assisted surgery is a method to perform surgery using very small tools attached to a robotic arm. Dr. Kirpal Singh, a surgeon at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital in Illinois has been training his peers in robotics-assisted surgery as part of a program that draws surgeons from all over the US. Dr. Singh has so far performed about 450 operations using the $2 million da Vinci robot. The surgeon is the driving force behind the Surgery 101 program of the Indianapolis hospital, which is one of about 25 epicenters of training in robotics-assisted surgery in the US. Anand Patel, a surgeon with Union Associated Physicians Clinic, Indiana, said, "Dr. Singh is quite the expert in this field. He's a very good teacher. He's very patient. Dr. Singh himself started using the robot for surgeries about three years ago. "The robot is a tool to do the same thing that you did."

The Indian-origin surgeon, Dr. Singh, said, "Trainees were not allowed to participate in any of the actual surgeries. Some of the benefits of robotics-assisted surgery include smaller incisions that significantly lower the chance of wound infections; shorter post-surgical hospital stays; and a significantly reduced chance of developing a hernia post-surgery."

Source-IANS